Murloc's Day Out
by Jack Motley
Summary: From the Blizzard Creative Writing Contest, this story did not place. A young Murloc dreams of one day becoming Ghak'murlal-hackspit--the Murloc Chief. Murgglaal sets out from home in search of adventure, shinies, shinies and some friendship, to boot
1. Chapter 1

**Prologuelalal!**

Once upon a time long ago, on a world far, far away from here, lived a curious little Murloc by the name of, Murgglaal.

Murgglaal was a brave, young and spirited Murloc of the Siltfin tribe, whom made their mud and stick homes along the Siltfin Shores on Azuremyst Isle. Our unusual little friend, Murgglaal, spent many of his younger years as a lowly scraper for the tribe; a finder and returner of green foods found on rocks out under the water.

Every day, little Murgglaal would trudge happily along underneath the water to do his daily chores. Every day, upon his return, little Murgglaal would present his scrapings to the Murloc Ghak'murlal-hackspit, the Murloc Chief, to be divided back out amongst Murgglaal's many brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles. Every morning, Murgglaal repeated the same job, over and over, day in and day out. Out into the ocean, under the waves, amongst the little shiny groups of frgulal, the fish, to scrape and scrape, swim back to shore once more, go to sleep, get up, and do the whole thing all over again.

Oh, Murgglaal hopes Murgglaal finds a shiny mggal, or a tasty hggarul, today, Murgglaal eagerly thought each morning, just one brrugburg, or a fun rugagal to bring home; that would make Murgglaal's day.

Poor Murgglaal's days were so terribly dull.

As Murgglaal returned and presented his scrapings to the Murloc Ghak'murlal-hackspit, our Murgglaal dreamt of himself one day becoming Ghak'murlal-hackspit, and how he would spend the rest of his happier days on land, sorting through the many shinies and tasties the other Siltfin would find and bring back to shore, and present as gifts to the honored Ghak'murlal-hackspit.

Our young Murgglaal envied the other, older Siltfin Murloc, for they would swim out further, pry open snapgrugags for shinies; play with the long-necked bigglglglglgltrth, and play fun games of 'Chase Murglgl, Chase Murglggl', 'Pokey-mfglglg!' and 'Mrglggllggllggll!' with the straight-backs, and lots and lots of other members of Murgglaal's extended family.

Every time Murgglaal heard the joyous call to play, "Mrglggllggllgglll!" as the straight-backs and Siltfin Murlocs danced, fell over, and played dead, Murgglaal's heart soared with want and desire. Soon, thought Murgglaal, he too would grow up, play with the straight-backs, and become the next great Ghak'murlal-hackspit.

As the days passed, our Murgglaal found himself impatient; unable to wait any further for his day to come. Murgglaal thought about it for days and days, spinning 'round and 'round in turmoil, until one day, he made his decision, and announced from a shoddy tower overlooking camp, "Murglglglgl!" The heads and eyes of the Siltfin Murlocs turned towards him. "Murgglaal will be Ghak'murlal-hackspit, one day!" Murgglaal proclaimed with pride for all to hear.

The Ghak'murlal-hackspit did not like Murgglaal's announcement, and many cries of 'Mfgh-spithock' went out to mock and make fun.

"Murgelala-hock," the Ghak'murlal-hackspit said rather angrily, "Mfg mrrgug gurgalal-hackspit!"

Oh dear, what a horrible thing to say...

"Murgalalala," Murgglaal said, "Murgglaal be great Ghak'murlal-hackspit! You see, Murgglaal will go inland, and bring back great shiny! Then you see, Murgglaal great Murloc, and greater Ghak'murlal-hackspit, will be!"

"Mfgh-spithock", the Siltfin Murlocs jeered, and some cheered, "Shiny! Shiny!"

The Murloc Ghak'murlal-hackspit looked even madder, and our brave but wary Murgglaal turned away to leave, away from the water, the shore, and the towers and huts of the Siltfin in search of his destiny.

**Chapter One-Murgal-Murgal**

Curious was the strange land beyond the sandy shores, Murgglaal thought as he stepped from soft sand, and onto softer green stuff, which looked like dry food scrapings to our little, adventurous Murloc. Murgglaal scraped at some of the green stuff, and took a nibble in tasting.

Blech, dry, Murgglaal thought, and spat the land green food out in disgust. The flavoring obviously needed more water. Oh, but Murgglaal didn't pack a lunch of frgulal, Murgglaal despaired. His spawn mother would be in an mlglgling tizzy, if she found out; but it would be okay, Murgglaal decided, he would not be gone long. How hard could adventuring be?

Little Murgglaal soon found out how hard it could be, as he found himself at the edge of a long piece of flat rock, stretched across the ground for as far as he could see. Murgglaal was amazed at the odd rock, and wondered if there were green foods underneath for him to scrape up and eat. He looked and looked both directions, and tried pulling up a piece of the rock, but it wouldn't budge; Murgglaal almost falling over backwards in his efforts.

Something big and fast flew past on the long rock, and Murgglaal cried out in surprise, hopping away from such a scary and sudden thingy.

"Kekkek," the thingy on the road said, and kept on going.

Startled and a little shaken, Murgglaal watched with wary curiosity the retreating thingy traveled on the long rock. It walked on four legs, and that was very strange to our two-legged hero. The thingy was as big, wide, and fat as any bigglglglglgltrth under the water, but with a little neck and head. It looked funny, Murgglaal thought, but our curious hero went ahead and crossed the long rock, anyways, before another one of those thingies came along.

Made bolder by his first brush with real adventure, our Murgglaal waddled onwards into an even stranger place; a joyous place, filled with lots of green and purple foods, growed way up there towards the ocean up there, above Murgglaal's head. In the near-distance, a glowy-shiny thingy caught Murgglaal's attention; little sparkly thingies floated off a little round thingy of green food, attracting dear Murgglaal, begging, "Oh, please, please, little Murloc, I require your upmost attentions! Look at my shine! How can you resist such a glorious shine? You have not the necessary resist! Click on me to receive your reward, but be warned: Click too many times, and I shall soon grow quite perturbed."

Of course, Murgglaal couldn't resist such temptation and elegant words. Our hypnotized friend waddled over to the glowy-shiny green food, and inspected it closely. There, compelled by the glowy-shiny's voice, Murgglaal reached out a finger, and gave the glowy-shiny thingy a poke.

"YOU WERE NOT PREPARED!" A voice boomed from somewhere unseen. "Oh, sorry, old habit," the strange voice spoke calmer, and cleared its throat to say, "Requires Herbalism 20."

"Mrg?" Murgglaal poked the green glowy-shiny thingy a few more times.

"Requires Herbalism 20," the voice said, "Requires Herbalism 20. Requires Herbalism 20. Requires Herb—Stop that! Poking doesn't make it work any better or faster. You are not a Troll."

By now, Murgglaal was even more confused than before, and looked around and around, spinning around to find the source of the voice.

"Ah-hah hah, you cannot see me, for I am invisible; unseen; the voice of the Ice Gods; the ones whose names shall not be spoken," the voice said with haughty confidence. "I am Level 1, and Level 80! Vendor Trash, and Legendary! But you can just call me, the UI, or just, Uwee, if you so please."

Murgglaal reached out a finger to poke at the glowy-shiny again, but Uwee cleared its throat in warning.

"Oh, just so you know, since you're new to this adventuring thing," Uwee said, "You've got aggro."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two-Murgal-Murgal**

Murgglaal turned around slow, and came around to face a tall, red skinned and black haired thingy that stood on two scary, clawed legs, and had a neck that stretched way up to the ocean up there. Around its feet, a red circle showed up like the thingy's shadow. It looked like something was stuck in the top of its head, and our little friend thought that was kinda funny, too. Funny, until the tall scary thingy made a frightening sound, and leaned down to peck at our amused hero with a sharp-looking beak.

Murgglaal turned and ran away, wailing out in fright, "Mrglglglgl!" with number thingies jumping up from his head. Oh no, our brave Murgglaal seemed doomed to a fate of running short of numbers—a travesty of math! Why, cruel subtraction, why must you torment Murgglaal so?

An even scarier growl came from a moving blur, leapt out from behind a tall, green food thingy. Poor Murgglaal's heart raced, but the blur flew over our frightened hero's head to land between him and the taller thingy. The blur thingy, a four-legged thingy with long teeth and a piece of fur hung loose from its back, growled out at his taller pursuer, scaring it off with a snap of Murloc morsel-sized teeth.

Murgglaal fled behind a tall, hard, green food thingy, and poked his head out just a little bit to look. Frightened, his entire body with the shivers, Murgglaal gurgled out in surprise when the long-tooth turned its head Murgglaal's way. What should Murgglaal do, what should Murgglaal do, Murgglaal thought in panic, and wished the scary thingies away; placing his face against the hard surface of the tall green food thingy and closing his eyes, thinking proudly to himself, genius(!), the mean, scary thingies couldn't see him now!

Murgglaal gurgled a little tune while he waited for the bad thingies to go away. They couldn't hear him, because he was invisible! How clever, indeed! One-murgal-murgal, two-murgal-murgal, three murgal-murgal, our brilliant hero counted away the time, twenty-murgal-murgal, nine-murgal-murgal, Murgglaal counted further, but stopped at eleventy-murgal-murgal; out of number-thingies to count with.

Murgglaal opened his eyes, and found himself face-to-teeth to the long-tooth thingy. "Mrgmurgmurgar!" Murgglaal said in fright, "Murgglaal taste bad! No eat Murgglaal! Murgglaal make tummy mad! Bad bad bad!"

The long-tooth looked right at our most unfortunate Murloc. Above the long-tooth's head, a straight, yellow line just popped up out of nowhere, with a little yellow thingy beneath that yellow line. The long-tooth sat still, almost as if he were set to stay in this location by some outside intervention, and awaited a response from Murgglaal.

"Exclamation marks are good," Uwee said all of a sudden, and Murgglaal spun around again to try to find from where Uwee spoke.

"Mrg?" Murgglaal pointed at the one large and one little yellow line over the long-tooth's head.

"Go ahead. Goodies come from exclamation marks. They're what the Ice Gods, all praise be to them, call, quests."

Curious, Murgglaal reached up a hand, and poked at the two yellow lines. The long-tooth's mouth opened in response, and from it unrolled and draped down a sheet of frayed, weatherworn paper, filled with markings of words in Murgglaal's native language: Scribbley lines and stick figures.

Huh, Murgglaal thought, a little dumbfounded, and took the sheet of paper from the long-tooth's mouth to read, "Greetings, dear [Race], I have a most embarrassing problem I hope you may find the kindness, generosity, gullibility and quantities of time to consume upon. I have a passing problem, you see? I nibbled upon some small, unimportant creature, earlier, underlined with yellow, circular shadow, and now I cannot further help myself, for I am far too lazy. Well, that and the odd being named, Uwee, has informed me this shall be a reoccurring problem, resolved only by fleeting creatures attracted by these two yellow lines placed over my head.

"I have filled out my request ticket for help, as directed and regulated by the entity known as, Uwee, and shall now direct you further downwards to the Objectives field of my help form. Found below that, lies payment for services rendered.

"Please help. This is a most socially awkward situation I find myself in."

Murgglaal raised the piece of paper up to eye level, turned it sideways, cocked his head sideways and back, flipped the paper upside down, around and around, and gave it a good little shake. A smaller strip of paper unrolled from the bottom, and presented two red squares for Murgglaal's consideration; both labeled 'Mrgll' and 'Mrgll', respectively.

Our little hero-to-be considered the Objective, 'Help Long Tooth with his passing problem', and the listed Reward, [Eternal Gratitude] and wondered what use [Eternal Gratitude] was to anyone. Wasn't there a more tangible reward, like food, or a neat item for him to take home and show off to help him become Ghak'murlal-hackspit, Murgglaal thought.

Murgglaal tried to close and toss away over his shoulder the weathered scroll, but it came flying right back like a boomerang to the back of his noggin. Murgglaal hissed and rubbed at the back of his head, and found the creepy scroll right back in his hands, again. He shook his hands to try to get rid of it, but the scroll would not budge, stuck on his hands. With an exasperated sigh of defeat, our up-and-coming hero unrolled the persistent scroll, eyed the two similar buttons, and tapped the one labeled, Mrgll. The other button…on the left. No, your other left. ...Your Murloc left.

The scroll wrapped itself back up in his hands, and disappeared into thin air to Murgglaal's surprise. He raised his arm and hand over his head, and eyed his palm where the scroll had been, giving his hand a vigorous shake to try to reveal where the scroll had gone.

"Mrg?" Murgglaal asked, and the scroll reappeared out of thin air to poke him right in his big eye, leading to a foul fit unsuitable for reprint.

"Mrgrgrgl!" Murgglaal muttered, now a proud owner of a black eye, and noticed with his good eye another glowy-shiny thingy not too far away, at the base of a tall, hard food thingy.

With a wave for Long Tooth to follow, Murgglaal trudged over to the glowy-shiny thingy, another one of those smaller green food thingies, and gave the thingy a sound poking. Murgglaal nearly leapt out of his scales when the glowy-shiny thingy produced a block of text below and to the right of it, hanging in the air, proclaiming, "Touch Me. I'm an obvious quest item, and not poisonous, really!"

Murgglaal wondered why it would have to state it wasn't poisonous, in the first place. The glowy-shiny food thingy sat patiently as our Murloc friend took cautious pokes at it. Long Tooth made our hero rather nervous, stood right there behind him all the time, following Murgglaal's path to a tee.

"Right-click to start herbalizing," Uwee said from nowhere in particular.

Murgglaal looked around again for the source of Uwee's voice, but could not find where it was coming from. Murgglaal swiped at the glowy-shiny thingy with wild flails of his arms and hands, just as he always had when scraping for the tribe underwater.

"No, no," Uwee corrected, "Right click. Right click."

Murgglaal looked at the glowy-shiny food thingy with complete befuddlement, and decided to pounce upon it with a gurgling cry of battle, gnawing on it with his teeth, trying to yank it out of the ground.

"Attempt failed. Attempt failed. Attempt failed. Okay, I really do not think that's going to work. What's your Herbalism skill at?"

Murgglaal stopped mauling the glowy-shiny, and looked around, his teeth still sunk into the leaves.

"You do have Herbalism, right?" Uwee asked, then corrected himself (itself?), "Oh, right, I am the All-Omnipotent User Interface here, aren't I? Let's see…" Uwee made thoughtful sounds as he checked some unseen book or something. "Ah, right, here it is: Herbalism for Murlocs, coming soon in a future patch, so sayeth the Ice Gods; may all worship and adore them!"

Our little Murloc was even more confused.

"Well, we can't have you running around with broken quests, now can we? It says here on your database entry that you have a skill called, 'Scraping'. Please be patient while I rewrite the rules of this universe…"

Murgglaal, still held onto the glowy-shiny food thingy, looked at Long Tooth to see what he thought. Long Tooth stretched out his back with a fierce yawn, oblivious to the strange conversation with the even stranger voice.

"Done!" Uwee announced. "Please, continue. I'll be over here, readjusting Arena because of this minor change. The Ice Gods only know what will come of balance, and the ocean of tears, now that Murlocs can herbalize."

Well and truly confused, Murgglaal gave the glowy-shiny thingy another tug at Uwee's suggestion. The glowy-shiny green food thingy still offered resistance, but as he yanked, Murgglaal felt the roots start to give. Murgglaal gave it a good tug with all his available might…and fell over backwards without his prize in hand.

"Attempt failed."

Frustrated, Murgglaal flailed his arms and legs, and picked himself back up; going back over to grab hold of the glowy-shiny green food thingy, and giving it another good pull, his feet planted on the sides of the thingy, gurgling out with exertion. The glowy-shiny green food thingy suddenly breaking free, sending Murgglaal tumbling over backwards, this time with prize in hand. Bounded back up, our triumphant friend waved the glowy-shiny thingy about over his head, and broke out into impromptu dance.

"Your skill in Herbalism has increased to level 21, but your dance emote still needs some work."

"Mrgurl-hack," our hero protested, "Murloc dance is good dance."

Not a moment after Murgglaal succeeded at pulling up the glowy-shiny green food thingy, did another set of yellow lines appear over Long Tooth's head. This time, the yellow lines were all curvy, turned this way and that, with a little, lonely mark of yellow underneath the twisted-up lines above it.

"Well, go on," Uwee said. "Question marks are also good."

Murgglaal gave the yellow lines a poke, and was rewarded by another roll of paper produced from Long Tooth's mouth. Murgglaal took this new one, and unrolled it to read, "Why, thank you, [Race], that herb matches the remedy's description on my follow-up form. Procedure now dictates a swap: Your herb, for the reward, if we may?"

Murgglaal looked at the glowy-shiny thingy Long Tooth called an herb, and handed it over. Bright, white and yellow light shot up out of the ground around our hero's feet, scaring poor Murgglaal half-to-death. Startled, our little friend jumped away from where the light had come from, and leaned down to poke at its former place in the ground. The ground the light had shot out from was neither hot, nor were there any holes left in the ground to mark where it had been. The scroll disappeared from Murgglaal's hand, and left him with nothing to show for it. The promised [Eternal Gratitude] was nowhere to be found, and our newly minted hero raised his arms, checked in his few strands of hair and under his feet for the Reward, but could not find it anywhere.

Terrible quest, he thought.

"You have gained 500 XP, and your level has increased to 8, grats! Now all you need to do is join a guild, so your narcissism can be sated with a proper 'Grats' response."

Murgglaal didn't know about all of that, and noticed another pair of straight, yellow lines appeared over Long Tooth's head. Wondering, what now, Murgglaal gave the lines another sound poking, prompting another scroll to pop out of Long Tooth's mouth.

Murgglaal read from this one, "Pardon me for a moment, [Name]."

Below that small blurb, the listed Objectives and Rewards were respectively: 'Pardon Long Tooth's critical business and [Faintly Growing Crystal].

Murgglaal tried to throw away this new scroll, but it was stuck to him as before, as if some strange, sadistic creature wanted him to go through with all of this for its unknown purposes, against our hero's will. With only Mrgll and Mrgll as choices, Murgglaal selected, Mrgll, and watched as Long Tooth turned around, and headed behind a tall, hard food thingy. Our curious onlooker of a Murloc stared for a moment, and then realized he should not be looking. Murgglaal spun around fast, and pretended to watch pieces of the tall, green food thingies fall to the ground.

Murgglaal waited and waited, but soon grew impatient enough to turn around and waddle over to check on Long Tooth; but Long Tooth was gone. Where Long Tooth had been, Long Tooth had been. Murgglaal covered his nose in disgust, but was intensely attracted by a shiny sticking out of said, been.

He tried to resist, poor Murgglaal, but it was a shiny! Shiny, shiny, shiny! Murgglaal looked around, and saw no one to report his shame; reaching down real quick to snatch up the shiny, and rubbing it up against the hard surface of the tall, hard thingy a few times before he felt satisfied enough it was clean enough to carry.

Murgglaal had such a nice shiny, and Uwee rewarded him with another 1,000 XP, and a [Faintly Glowing Crystal]. In celebration, our heroic Murloc danced and danced with the shiny over his head like he just didn't care.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three-Murgal-Murgal**

Triumphant, with a fine shiny, and a story of his bravery to take back to the tribe, our fresh from the presses hero decided to make his way back home to claim his title of, Ghak'murlal-hackspit.

Murgglaal spun around a few times, and realized he had no idea where he was, lost within the green and purple maze of tall and small food thingies. Long Tooth disappeared, as well, and left poor Murgglaal all alone in the unfamiliar and creepy place, far from home, with only the [Faintly Glowing Crystal] in his possession.

With no bearings to speak of, Murgglaal did what any good Murloc would do; he started trudging. He trudged and trudged and trudged, until he came upon a clearing with a flat strip of shore cut out different from the green, dry food thingy on the ground. There walking the shore, was a vision like no other: A blue-skinned straight-back, wearing a nice piece of something the straight-backs called, clothing; with a fun tool in one hand that the straight-backs and the Siltfin always shared amongst each other with such joy.

The shape, the curves, the distinctive waggle; Murgglaal was smitten, and rushed out towards the straight-back to tell it all about all kinds of thingies, and none of them he would or could babble coherently about.

"Murglglgl," he gurgled in greeting, drawing the straight-back's attention. "Mrgglglglgll," he croaked out when the straight-back tried to share the fun tool with him, introducing him to a new game Murgglaal figured to be called, 'Where's your body?'

Clever, clever, straight-back, Murgglaal thought as he waddled back in a fun, misty form to where Uwee said his body was; waving at a winged thingy that he figured helped people play the game better. There, laid out on along the shore in the dry, green food thingy, was his body, lying around all lazy and asleep while such fun was to be had.

Murgglaal gave his body a firm kick, and reattached himself, with himself. Murgglaal let out a happy cheer of victory, and performed another impromptu dance for succeeding at the game. The straight-back was a poor sport, though, and shared the fun tool with him, again.

Well, that wasn't fair, our little friend thought. It was the straight-back's turn to play, 'Where's your body?' Murgglaal had to waddle all the way back, not forgetting to wave to the nice winged-thingy for letting him play, and gave his body another kick to reattach himself.

This time around, however, his beloved straight-back asked their friends to come join them. How fun! There were so many of them, with a bunch of fun tools, too, that Murgglaal decided to make it a game of 'Chase Murglgl, Chase Murglggl!', running away as fast as his little legs could go. Murgglaal giggled and flailed his arms in joy, still tightly held onto the [Faintly Glowing Crystal]. All of the straight-backs looked like they were having so much fun, too, chasing him in a straight-back stampede. An overjoyed Murgglaal turned to follow another misty-looking thingy, playing the same game with another straight-back.

Up and up a hill they ran. The other misty-thingy, a furry thingy, stopped at the top of the hill and turned around to face the straight-back that played with it. Murgglaal gurgled out in laughter, and helped the straight-back play the game, too; giving it a shove off the edge of the cliff.

The misty-furry thingy rewarded him for his help by casting some strange spell on Murgglaal, granting him magic wings, and helping our enchanted hero feel so wonderfully light. The other straight-backs had almost caught up to our hero, by now, and Murgglaal decided to make the game even funner by leaping off the edge of the cliff with his magic wings.

"Whee-murglgg!" Murgglaal exclaimed at the joy of flight, gliding off the end of the cliff.

Behind Murgglaal, the many straight-backs took their turns playing, 'Where's your body?' tumbling off the edge of the cliff, unable to stop in time. When they hit the ground, their bodies caught fire for no good reason Murgglaal could think of…unless it was to help them to find their bodies, faster! Since Uwee had helped him cheat a little, and all, that made perfect sense, but Murgglaal wished someone had told him about the 'Catch fire' rule in the game before he started playing. It looked fun!

Our winged hero flew and flew for a little while, over pools of water, and over the tops of tall green food thingies. Murgglaal was swimming in the up-there ocean, and he thought that no other Murloc could have ever experienced such a wondrous thing as this.

Murgglaal's wings started to fade just as he touched down in a long stream of clean water. As happy as a ghkink, a crab, to water as anyone, and especially a Murloc, our even-more accomplished hero ducked under and swam about to wet his scales; gulping down a cool, clean drink of water.

Swimming under the water, Murgglaal amazed at how fresh the water was. The water he always swam in tasted so bitter and tangy. Murgglaal lapped it up while he could, and snapped up a red frgulal, a fish, to eat from the bunch of them all gathered up together in a flashy, red collection underneath the water's surface around him. Murgglaal raised the poor fish to his sharp-toothed mouth, only to be interrupted from his dinner by something big and wide splashing the surface above him. Murgglaal gurgled and flailed about, wrapped up in the jaws of some mean beast about to make dinner out of him. Pulled up out of the water, our little Murgglaal rolled and squirmed within the constraints of the beast's jaws, trying to get free, still held onto his frgulal.

"Kek?" The beast sounded surprised at his catch.

The beast's jaws relaxed and pulled away from Murgglaal. Frgulal still flopping about in his hands, Murgglaal confronted the beast that tried to capture him; a tall, wide, and disproportionally shaped straight-back, holding a big piece of metal up that seemed somewhat unfriendly to our hydrated hero. Yellow light shot up from around the feet of the straight-skin, letting Murgglaal know he was in trouble.

Murgglaal wasn't that hungry, anyways, and tossed the flopping frgulal at the straight-back's face, letting it flop about and smack the straight-back in the face with its tail. Murgglaal ran up, kicked the straight-back in the shin, and ran away down the shoreline as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four-Murgal-Murgal**

Murgglaal ran and ran down the shoreline until he could run no more. Leaned over, our out-of-breath and hounded hero glanced back over his shoulders, and saw no one followed. Relieved, Murgglaal wiped at his perpetually slick-scaled forehead, and checked to make sure the [Faintly Glowing Crystal] was still there. With a quick shake, yup, there it was. Murgling-joyous!

Little Murgglaal realized he'd run so far, he'd become even more lost then before. Murgglaal scratched at his head, unable to remember anything about this particular stretch of shoreline. He looked out across the water, and saw big, big rocks; as big as any he'd ever seen before, stuck up out of the water a long ways out there.

"Psst," a little voice called for his attention. "Hey, buddy, ya lookin' for a quest?"

Murgglaal turned and looked, but saw no one. Maybe it was a ghost, he thought. Stranger thingies had happened to him, today.

"No, buddy, down here," the voice said, and Murgglaal looked down at his feet, and almost jumped out of his scales at the sight of a ghkink, a crab, just sitting there, looking up at him.

"Wassup?" The ghkink raised a claw. "Ya lookin' for a quest? Ya look like you're lookin' for a quest. I can tell, you know? Lots of experience."

"Mrg?"

Sure enough, two lines popped up over the ghkink's head; one long and straight, and the other below it, small, like a dot. Murgglaal poked both lines.

"That's da spirit," the ghkink said, and handed over a scroll of the same frayed paper Long Tooth unrolled from his mouth earlier in the day. "Here ya go, buddy. I'd tell ya, myself, but contractual obligations and all."

"Mrgah?" Murgglaal asked, and unrolled the scroll to read.

"Yo, don't tell me ya ain't never heard of da Union?"

Murgglaal shook his head, nuh-uh.

"Wow, Murlocs, bur... Anyways, it's da NPC Union. Good benefits: Great health care, we never get sick; all da food ya can eat, and ya always got a rez close by! Well…within five to fifteen minutes, dependin' on where you is."

Huh, our hero was learning all kind of new things, today. Murgglaal opened up the scroll, and read, "Hi, wassup?"

Directly below that, the Objectives were listed as, 'Talk to Dr. Crawl.' and the Reward, 'A snappy greeting.'

Murgglaal pushed the now-familiar Mrgll button, and the scroll disappeared from his hand. A curved, yellow line thingy once more showed up over Dr. Crawl's, um, head, and Murgglaal gave it a proper poke; with Uwee coming along to give our growing hero XP: 100.

"Wassup?" Dr. Crawl gave his snappy greeting. "Okay, dere's your snappy greeting, as promised. Don't say I ain't livin' up to da letter of da word."

Another set of straight, yellow lines appeared over Dr. Crawl, and Murgglaal pushed them just out of reflex, by now.

"I love 'dose things," Dr. Crawl said. "Anyways, dat was da contractual obligations! Now, let's get down ta business." Dr. Crawl leaned in conspiratorially, even though they were the only ones on the shore, and whispered, "I got dis hot little number of a quest, says da chickens up at ol' McWeaksauce's camp is plannin' a revolt. Dey been cooped up too long, ya know what I'm sayin'?"

Nuh-uh, our hero shook his head.

"Don't worry, don't worry…" Dr. Crawl said, and twisted his body around to look for eavesdroppers before he scuttled up the beach to where the dry green food started growing, beckoning our hero to follow. Dr. Crawl scuttled to a stop by one of the tall, hard green food thingies, and hit it with his pincer, a hollow sound ringing out from the tall thingy.

"Ya see, da chickens, dey need one of those courier guys ta deliver dis here heraldin' thing," Dr. Crawl said, and produced a little, whistle-like instrument from some unseen place in his shell, explaining further, "But where ta find a courier brave enough, and dat can get past da guards, dey say?" Dr. Crawl tapped the hollow tree with his pincer again in a loving fashion. "Dis fools da guards, I say. Pinched it off one of 'dose hoovies. Made 'er cry, an' everything."

Murgglaal pointed at the tree. "Mrguh?"

"Like 'dis!" Dr. Crawl said, and yanked at the hollow tree, transforming it from a tree, back into a small mask. Dr. Crawl placed the mask over our astonished hero's face, and voila, Murgglaal became a tree! "Now, see, dis used ta have a limiter, but I took it off. It's good crab technology, it is! Now ya can move, an' be a tree at da same time! Ain't dat grand?"

"Murgish!" Murgglaal said, and decided to test the disguise, scooting about and giggling across the shore until he fell over. The tree disguise was top heavy, and our eco-friendly hero couldn't right himself; kicking his feet stuck out of the bottom of the disguise to spin himself around and around on the sand.

"Oops, forgot ta mention dat particular safety flaw. Ya gotta pull it off ta reset it."

Murgglaal did so, and became his good Murloc self, once again. Murgglaal ran back over to Dr. Crawl, and held up the mask to dance a little jig.

"Yeah yeah, good for ya. Now, do ya want some pointless plot exposition dat doesn't affect ya quest, or do ya want ta jus' go save some chickens from da tyranny of Tyrant McWeaksauce, an' reap da rewards? 'Cuz I ain't paying; da chickens are."

Murgglaal shook his head, nuh-uh.

Dr. Crawl raised his pincer in a wave. "Welp, lemme know how it all works out, an' all dat,"

"Uh, hey, Billy Joe Bob?" One of the Alliance Axman asked the other, and pointed at a tree walking towards them. "Is that one of them trees we should be cuttin' down?"

Billy Joe Bob looked at the approaching tree, and shook his head, "Naw, Bubba Joe Billy, that one of them magic trees we're not allowed to be cuttin' down. You remember what happened last time someone tried cutting down magic trees?"

"Uh…the world near exploded?"

"Yup, and that's why it's good Alliance policy: No cutting down magical trees," Billy Joe Bob said, and tipped his hat at the magic tree as it walked past.

The disguised Murgglaal waved a tree branch in response.

"Right kind magic tree."

"Yup."

Our disguised hero, now as tall as, well, a tree, walked through the front gate of the camp, and almost fell over when the top of his disguise bounced off the cross beam situated on top of the walls. Murgglaal backed up and tried again a few times until he stopped bouncing off the cross beam, and managed to duck the tree disguise down underneath it, walking on into the camp proper. No one paid him much mind inside, except some strange, tall, dark-skinned straight-back with glowy eyes, who smiled coyly at his disguised tree form, and made a little wave in his direction that somehow disturbed our hero.

There, in the center of camp, and around the fire, was the infamous tyrant, McWeaksauce, with what looked like a fun tool in his hand, debating something with another straight-back wearing a funny hat. Bunches of chicken were loose, clucking and pecking at the ground around McWeaksauce's feet.

Boldly, our stealthy hero walked across camp, parked his tree disguise right next to a chicken, and whispered the code words, "Foul play is afoot." before handing over the musical instrument.

"Kek kek, kek!" Uh-oh, Tyrant McWeaksauce hollered at him.

"Kek kek, kek!" McWeaksauce poked at our hero's tree disguise with his fun tool, and turned to ask something of the other straight-back, who just shrugged in reply.

"Kek kek," the other straight-back said.

Murgglaal started walking away. The two straight-backs just watched the moving, magical tree go with naught but a scratch of their heads.

"Kek," the other straight-back said to tyrant McWeaksauce.

Without warning, the chicken leader let loose with a mighty blast from the [Kazoo of the Dark Usurper], rallying his poultry platoon, and jumped up in McWeaksauce's face, flapping its wings to distract and confuse the Tyrant of Tenderizer. The other chickens followed suit, jumping all over their tormentor, McWeaksauce, and his straight-back buddy, pulling the ridiculously outdated and unfashionable hat down over the other one's eyes.

Murgglaal saw Uwee hand out 1,000 XP to him, and some shiny, circular thingies laid on the ground for our hero to pick up. Wisely, Murgglaal decided now was a good time to leave, just as the hills surrounding the camp filled with hundreds of little furry and fuzzy thingies with yellow shadows underneath them.

"Kek kek Gondor kek," someone said, sounding very afraid.

Sunlight streamed down from behind the horde of angered, charging critters, and Murgglaal hurriedly took his costume off, exiting out the back way of the camp before absolute critterpocalypse occurred.

Murgglaal departed the shore-side of the camp, and carried off down the shoreline, once more. Behind him, a tasty looking, orange mushroom grew from inside the camp. Pity that, for Murgglaal was actually kinda hungry.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five-Murgal-Murgal**

Our intrepid and even further accomplished hero waddled down the shoreline, admiring his [Faintly Glowing Crystal], a handful of circular shinies, and the tree disguise mask he now wore on top of his head.

What his tribe back at Siltfin camp would think of him, now, our hero wanderer wondered as he left the black smoke of what he thought to be a great cooking fire to burn back at the camp behind him. Dear Murgglaal was tired, hungry, and his feet grew sore. He now just wanted to go home. Surely, he had done enough for any half-dozen Ghak'murlal-hackspits, by now.

"Ooh, mrgal, mrgal!" Our hero exclaimed upon the realization he had stumbled upon a bunch of weird rocks, with shinies, shinies, shinies, all over the place! Shinies that glowed better than any treasure found in any snapgrugag, better known as a clam.

Murgglaal's attention drawn to one of the shinies, stood up on a weird thingy that lifted it up off the ground. Murgglaal gave the thingy the shiny was sitting on a shake to dislodge it, but the shiny up top refused to budge.

"Mrgga, mrgga," he said to it in frustration, and shook the thingy the shiny was on, again. "Mrgga!" Murgglaal cheered as the shiny thingy teetered this way and that, and finally tipped right over and off what it was sitting on to roll down a hill. "Mrgga!" Our hero called after the rolling shiny, giving chase.

The shiny bounced and tumbled, giving Murgglaal fits trying to get his hands around the slippery-then-it-looked shiny thingy. Once, twice, three times Murgglaal almost had it, but the shiny just barely slipped away. Murgglaal gurgled at it in frustration, and finally pounced, arms and legs spread full out on top of it, and stopped it with the full stretch of his body.

"Mrgga!" He said triumphantly, and raised the shiny over his head; having a hard time keeping up with all his shinies, with as little as he could carry in his short, stubby arms.

Someone or something hissed, making Murgglaal freeze in his tracks, canceling his impromptu dance. Circled around him, were a bunch of scaly, nasty, ugly, naghahishhh with weapons pointed right at him; the reviled enemy of the Murlocs, the Naga.

Murgglaal threw his arms up in the air in surrender, and dropped his shinies. Our hero made a little cry of surprise, and quickly leaned back down to pick his items back up, realized he should have his arms up, dropped the items again trying to raise his arms, and repeated this process a few times until one of the big naghahishhh hit him over the head from behind, and introduced our hero to the wonder of celestial events.

Our dazed hero awoke in a stuffy, mildewy, dank, dark, foul place, lit only by more, oohshinies! Shinies, shinies, shinies!

This place couldn't be that bad, our hero thought.

"Murgga?" Our captive hero asked the near-darkness, and noticed himself splayed out on top of a flat rock, surrounded by more flat rocks, and even more odd-shaped rocks around those.

The flat rock was cold to his scaly skin, but there were lots of green food hanging off the walls from where the water most collected. True to his scraping job, our hungry hero scrapped and ate to sate his hunger, until he was interrupted by the biggest, ugliest, meanest, stinkiest, scaliest naghahishhh he had ever seen, threatening him with a large fun tool, and hissing; even though Murgglaal couldn't make out what was being said.

The big naghahishhh grabbed him up around his neck and carried him against our hero's will down to the water below the flat rocks, throwing him down in front of his shinies. The meany nagahahishhh pointed at his collection of shinies, and at our hero; who only made an annoyed gurgle, and raised his arms in a shrug. Clearly angered, the naghahishhh threatened with the fun tool once more, which didn't threaten Murgglaal. It was a fun tool! What could it ever do, but make fun?

Oh, oh, Murgglaal realized the naghahishhh wanted to play, 'Where's your body?' The big, ugly, stinky, meany, sweaty naghahishhh brought the fun tool up, and someone made a banging sound that told the naghahishhh, 'You first!' The big naghahishhh croaked out, wobbled backwards, and fell over as the first participant in the fun game.

Murgglaal was overjoyed! Everyone loved to play 'Where's your body?'! Murgin-yea!

Down from the tunnel came a dark-skinned straight-back, wearing yellow-brown leather, and a piece of yellow and orange cloth over their mouth; a big fun tool in both hands with a wisp of smoke coming out of it, and hard-looking, curved things coming from their head.

Murgglaal looked strangely at the straight-back, who looked back at him just as strangely. Our hero felt something appear over his head, and reached up to take a swat at it. His hands went through whatever it was, but as he looked up, he realized two straight, yellow lines now floated over his head.

The straight-back; pleasantly curvy, with a entrancing waggle, scratched her head, consulted a book magically appeared in her hands, and looked back over our hero like she had seen the ghosts, as well.

Murgglaal waved, and thought back real hard about everything he did, today. Gurgling with inspiration, Murgglaal reached down to pick up all his shinies, offering the circular shinies to the straight-back with a frantic waving, and an interpretive dance.

"Take Murgglaal home, please" our hero said, pleading, and the words the straight-back could not hear, appeared on a contract only she could see.

The straight-back leaned in, looked even closer to inspect our hero, and heaved her shoulders up in a shrug; reaching up to poke at the thin, straight yellow lines, and hitting another button Murgglaal couldn't see.

Yea, Murgglaal thought, he had made his first quest, and he was going home! Uwee assured him it was all perfectly on the up-and-up, and the Union would approve, or else they would be nerfed into inviability. Murgglaal wasn't sure what 'nerfed' was, but he could well imagine that it must be something like what the straight-back was doing to the ugly, stinky, foul and horrible nagahahishhh with her big fun tool. The joys of 'Where's your body?' were spread with much joy and exuberance, today, Murgglaal was so pleased to later report.

Our loyal hero kept up with the hypnotic, waggling pace of the straight-back, and occasionally kicked a lousy, filmy, stinky nagahahishhh in the face that tried to avoid playing 'Where's your body?' with everyone else. Very happy was our hero to finally be out of the cave; following the straight-back down to the shore, away from the nagahahishhh cave, where she turned and poked at the yellow curvy lines that formed over his head.

"Mrg?" Murgglaal asked, now that his escort home had stopped nowhere in sight of his home.

"Uh, that would be, my bad," Uwee said, again from nowhere in particular. "We haven't implemented that quest, yet. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"Murggamurgga!"

"Soon, I promise, soon. Have faith in the Ice Gods; all praise and adoration to our benevolent overlords!"

Our frustrated hero looked up, and realized the straight-back was pointing at something on his head. Murgglaal felt with his hands, and grabbed hold of the tree disguise mask, placed up there for safekeeping. The straight-back really wanted it, Murgglaal thought, even after she had taken some of his circular shinies for getting him out of the nagahahishhh cave. Murgglaal grumbled, gurgled, looked at all the items he had in his hands—the circular shinies were easy to carry—and decided he could give up the mask. It wasn't that shiny, anyways.

Oh, but the straight-back was so happy to have the mask, and our generous hero wondered if there might be some connection, there. With a shrug, and an uncaring gurgle, he dismissed the idea of coincidences, waved farewell to the overjoyed straight-back, and turned up the shoreline. Darkness was soon to come, and Murgglaal was still so far from home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six-Murgal-Murgal**

Once more, our hero found himself waddling down unfamiliar shores. The glowy-shiny ball in the sky was sinking slowly into the water, and with the glowy-shiny ball swimming in the water, the cold would sneak in and bite unseen at the exposed and tenders parts of Murloc bodies. Murgglaal didn't like the cold, and when it got cold, all kind of scary thingies moved in the dark. Not that he was scared, not a great Murloc like him, destined to be Gahk'murlal-hackspit; but cautious…yes, very cautious.

A light in the distance, shone over the edge of the cliffs lining the shore, attracted our future hero-king's attention, promising warmth. Our tired hero waddled up the rough cliffs to see where the light came from, to be amazed at the sight of a great, ocean-up-there height thingy of super-glowy-shiny rock.

"Ooh-murrrla…" Our hero said, dumbfounded by the brilliance of the super-glowy shiny thingy, attracting him without any further explanation other than, "Shiny, shiny, shiny!"

Murgglaal waddled up closer and closer, eyes fixated on the super-duper glowy-shiny thingy, and didn't even notice the big straight-back he bumped right into.

"Kek!" The tall and wide straight-back said, startled as much as our hero was.

Murgglaal wailed, and tried to run away, but the straight-back grabbed him up by the back of his neck for the second time today. A Murloc hero-slash-future Gahk'murlal-hackspit could soon grow tired with all this rough treatment.

Well, if anything our once-again captured hero could say about this recent leg of the journey; at least he had a chance to see the inside of the super-duper shiny-glowy thingy, and what a sight it was: Hard, shiny stone all around, forming a tunnel that led down to a curved ramp made of what Murgglaal gleefully thought was hard, red water. Our hero's eyes couldn't turn fast enough to see everything there was to see. Over there, were weird markings that glowed red on the stone, and in the air; over there, lots and lots of straight-backs in weird cloth milled about; back that way, more glowy-shiny thingies; and glowy-shinies, glowy-shinies, glowy-shinies, everywhere!

Surely, Murgglaal had died and gone to super-super-super-duper glowy-shiny Murloc heaven!

His captor dumping him most unpleasantly on the hard ground, much to our hero's gurgled protests, interrupted our enamored hero's reverie rather rudely. Dropped next to him, Murgglaal's shinies clanked and rolled around on the floor, forcing Murgglaal to scramble on all fours to collect the [Faintly Glowing Crystal] before it could get away.

Murgglaal reached out for the glowy-shiny from the nagahahishhh's place, but a larger hand reached down to scoop it up before our hero could. Our annoyed hero bounded up to his feet, and gurgled out a warning to give it back to a large, long-clothed straight-back, who looked older than any of the Siltfin's few elders. Tufts of white hair cropped up on top of the straight-back's head and face, punctuated by glowy-shiny eyes studying the glowy-shiny thingy in his hands.

The old, old, old straight-back chuckled as he turned our hero's shiny around to inspect it. One of the big, hooved, tall and clumsy straight-backs stepped up to point an angry finger at Murgglaal, and said something Murgglaal couldn't understand.

"Calm, my child," the ancient straight-back said to the younger. "He is no more a spy, than you are a Blood Elf."

"Kek kek, kek!" The other straight back sounded much more upset. "Kek kek kek, kek kek kekek kek kek kekek, kek!"

Our robbed hero jumped up and down, trying to reach his shiny raised high over his head by the very old straight-back.

"All who wander are not lost," the elder straight-back said to the younger one; the ancient-as-dirt straight-back turning back to our hero. "You desire to have this returned?" Murgglaal nodded many times with quick bobs of his head in response. "If it means so much to you, then," he said, and handed the shiny back to Murgglaal, adding, "I apologize on the behalf of the Draenai, on this most unfortunate misunderstanding. You must have had a terribly trying day, to hold onto such treasures so tightly?"

Our hero had his shiny, once again, and held it over his head with a dance of reunited happiness. A dance of joy Murgglaal stopped dancing when a thought struck him, "You hear Murgglaal? How?"

Prophet Velen smiled, and leaned down with swiftness reminiscent of a mountain's movement. "One can hear anything, so long as one is willing to listen."

"Kek kek kek, kekek kek kekek kek-kek kek!" One of the younger straight-backs said, sounding rather irate.

"What do you mean by, 'It's obviously gone insane, and must be destroyed on a regular basis by twenty-five so-called best friends'? All I can see, here, all the truth that can be seen, is that this brave Murloc has seen much turmoil, today, and is quite ready to go back home; correct, little one?"

Murgglaal nodded vigorously, waited a moment, and realized he did have to yawn and stretch his arms out; careful not to lose his shinies this time.

"Who here amongst you, the devout and self-proclaimed paragons of peace, would do the Light's bidding in escorting this Murloc back to the Silting Shores?" Prophet Velen asked the assembled Draenai.

One-by-one, the eyes and heads of the other, younger and bigger straight-backs turned away. Prophet Velen cast no judgment on anyone, except for a pat on our hero's head in sympathy. "Do not concern, little one. You may stay the night with us, as a guest of the Exodar until light's dawn."

"I'll take him," someone said.

Everyone turned to look towards the speaker: A dark-skinned straight-back, dressed in yellow-brown leather, with an orange and yellow piece of cloth hung around her neck. Rested over her shoulder, was her big fun tool, and by her side; a black and gray, four-legged furry thingy stood, with a long tail and even longer teeth.

"Mrglalalalaa!" Murgglaal exclaimed in joy, recognizing Long Tooth.

"I'll take him home," the Huntress said, "If that's alright with everyone else, of course?"

No one objected, and Prophet Velen clasped his hands together to show his satisfaction with the decision. "Your faith and service to the Light is an inspiration to us all, young Coranna." The Prophet waved our hero along. "Go, with the Light's blessing, and the favor of the Naaru, little one."

Murgglaal collected up both his shinies, and waddle-ran through the legs of the younger straight-backs, to go over and happily jump up and down in front of Long Tooth, breaking out in another reunion dance at both Long Tooth and Coranna's feet.

"Happy little one, aren't you?"

"Shiny, shiny, shiny!" Murgglaal said, and showed her and Long Tooth the two shinies he had left: The [Faintly Growing Crystal], and the shiny orb.

"By the Light, you must be the richest Murloc ever," Coranna said with a smile, and produced the tree disguise mask from her pack, placing it on top of our hero's head. "I couldn't turn it in after the quest was over. You never know when turning into a tree might come in handy."

Murgglaal let out a little gurgle of surprise as Long Tooth put his nose under our hero, and picked him up off the ground to tumble over backwards onto Long Tooth's back. Coranna helped him to sit up straight, and Murgglaal flailed his arms like a little zergling in joy at the prospect of a ride.

"Come," Coranna said. "Let's get you home. You've had quite a day, for a Murloc."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven-Murgal-Murgal**

Many straight-backs turned to watch the unusual sight of a Draenai giving a Murloc a ride on the back of a Nightstalker inside the Draenai capital, the Exodar. The three, our hero, Murgglaal, the Huntress, Coranna, and the nightstalker cat, Long Tooth, walked out of the front gate of the Exodar, and out into darkness. A small group of curious followers carried torches to follow the spectacle, but after a few minutes, and the realization that no great Murloc conspiracies were afoot, their curiosity waned, and all soon drifted off, retreated to the warmth and safety of the Exodar to bed down for the night.

The three walked down the long road by moonlight; Coranna pretended to know what Murgglaal blabbered and gurgled about to pass the few minutes travel back to the Silting Shores; and our triumphant, returning hero constantly waved about his shinies to show her and Long Tooth, recounting a story neither could understand in his gibberish-sounding language. The few torches of the Silftin tribal camp ahead stood out along the shore, back dropped by the mercurial motion of darkened waves shifted back and forth in unending motion, and painted with just a brown and white flair of their moon's reflection on the water.

Murgglaal looked forward to his return to camp with all his shines, and all the stories to be told about his adventures. Back to his little wood and mud tower he called, home. After all of that, all the adventure, our hero would return a hero, and quite possibly a Ghak'murlal-hackspit, but what was after that, he thought. A great life, sure, for a Murloc; picking over scrapings off rocks from the ocean floor, and presiding over trinket ceremonies scavenged from the bottom, stolen from straight-backs, and scavenged from wreckage afloat in the water.

Some life, our hero thought…for a Murloc.

"You know, you don't have to go back? I bet that was your first time away from the shore, right?" Murgglaal nodded. "What if I told you that that little village over there, and this entire island, are just itty-bitty little pieces of a much bigger world?"

"Mrg?"

"After I dropped you off, me and your friend here were planning on boarding a ship, and traveling across a great ocean to a far-away land. I hear they have lots of shinies over there. Big shinies, little shinies, shinies you can wear, and shinies you can wear. On. Your. Head."

"Shinies!"

"I also hear they have really good food, too," the Huntress said with a wry smile.

Our hero happily waved his arms about in the air. "Mrgagaga!"

"So, wanna come? The ship leaves soon, and there may be no coming back."

Our hero thought about it long and hard, looked at the shinies in his hand, and back at the camp he'd started the day out as a mere scraper in. It wasn't much of a decision for our little Murgglaal, and without a second thought, or a look back, he tossed aside the two glowy-shinies, but kept the mask on his head, beckoning with an excited flailing of his arms for Long Tooth to turn around.

.


End file.
